I went with a friend in summer 2002 while she signed up for a Bally account. While there, they talked me into signing up for a free 2 week trial, I agreed. I didn't really want to. I got home, and read the contract over, and saw that I had only a couple of days to cancel by sending a letter to home office.
So I quickly sent out a letter, and followed up on it, they said everything was cancelled.in early I started getting calls and letters from collection agencies. I called Bally home office, thinking it was just a simple mistake and would be simple to clear up. Far from it. Bally home office said it had no record showing that I had cancelled my trial membership. Said there was no letter on file. I called the sales rep at the location where I joined, he said that it was showing that I cancelled satisfactorally, and to call home office back.
I called home office again, went through the same story, they said there was no record of cancellation. I called the collection agency and disputed it, they did look into it for me, but now ironically, there isn't even record at the sign up location that I had cancelled. But it was there 1 week prior to that. Funny, huh? Also, ironically, on my credit report it does say that an account was closed at consumer request, then 2 days later on my credit report it is showing that the account was RE-OPENED!
Now who would have done that!? Maybe someone who didn't want to lose their sales commission? I called Bally about that too, and they did say there were 2 sets of paperwork for some reason, but they didn't know why. One was cancelled but then re-opened within a couple days later.
Anyway, the ending to this story stinks. I have appealed it through the credit bureaus and all to no avail, so I just had to settle with the collection agency for $950, or I would not be able to buy a house this year. I'm trying to get a mortgage. I COULD NOT get this off my credit! I agree, Bally's should absolutely be shut down or FINED tremendously!!!
Their time will come, though. We all know of companies that have finally been sued for millions, when they thought the common poor folk couldn't overcome. We just can't give up. I had to pay it for now, but you better believe for the rest of my life I will pull people away from them. Think of how much money they are losing that way, as opposed to the money they could make if I talked wonderfully about them to everyone. Bad Karma, they'll be getting it all back.
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